Are you from the US? If yes, you are indeed part of a rare group these days. I respect conservatism of that sort even if I don't necessarily agree with it. At least it's philosophically consistent, as opposed to the "socially authoritarian market liberalism" that passes for conservatism in the U.S.

Well, yes, I am from the US - Madison, Wisconsin, actually. And I agree with you that I (and people like me) are well out of the mainstream in contemporary US politics. I wouldn't say we're entirely gone yet, though.

But yes, conservative fusionism of the kind the GOP espouses nowadays makes very little sense to me. If they were really in favour of 'family values' per se, they'd spend a hell of a lot less time bashing gays and more time pushing for living wages, public healthcare, greater power for unions and economic protection of well-compensated jobs for the working class. And if they really did care about the lives of the unborn, they would spend more time ensuring that mothers are well-supported enough to care for them once they are born (paid maternity leave, again - public healthcare, better public education and so forth).

horatio83 wrote:

Choosing between a typical contemporary liberal who is mainly socially progressive but not economically and a conservative like yourself would be a no-brainer for me.
As Sonak has pointed out, a key problem nowadays is that globalization undermines politics proper. To me any political agenda that opposes this trend (except of course a fascist or communist one) is welcome.

Thanks!

I actually have a very high regard for the European-style social democratic (and Christian social) parties which haven't sold-out yet. They come the closest, IMHO, to articulating and fighting for the Trek ideal.

~~

But getting back to the OP, since I didn't have much of a chance to address it earlier:

I'm really not sure Starfleet had much of an opportunity to be the unqualified 'good guys', and much of DS9 was a meditation on the 'yeah, buts' and 'what ifs' of the Trek universe. The Founders are xenophobic enough that I can easily believe that Odo was the only person the Female Changeling was willing to talk to / Link with. The Dominion side obviously were committed to total war, as was Starfleet by the end.

But note that on Cardassia, Admiral Ross and Captain Sisko both were unwilling to drink a toast over the dead bodies of the Cardassians who had been slaughtered by the Jem'Hadar. Hypocrisy? Maybe. But it could also be seen as an attempt to regain the idealism they had lost in the war that culminated in the Battle of Cardassia.